Experts Review Their 2009 Oscar Predictions in Sci/Tech Categories: Where We Were Right and How We Went Wrong

When the nominations came out, PM asked movie industry experts for their predictions in the Oscar's Sci/Tech categories like sound mixing and sound editing. After the award ceremony last night, they were two for five. Today, we asked the same experts what they thought of the winners, and had them pick a standout scene from the now Academy Award-winning film.

BEST SOUND MIXING

Richard Van Dyke, who has has mixed sound in 3:10 to Yuma, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Body of Lies.

His PredictionWall-E

The Winner:

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Slumdog Millionaire

"I'm happy to see that Slumdog Millionaire won," Van Dyke says. "They recognized a more dialogue-driven film as opposed to an effects-heavy film. That to me shows that maybe they are looking more at these films." Overall, Van Dyke thinks the popularity of the movie certainly helped, but that the subtleties of the sound mix didn't hurt either. "It was a seamless job where you're not that aware of the sound. When someone comes out of a movie talking about a soundtrack, it's usually because it was bad. And when a film is seamless, it goes unnoticed and that means you did a good job."

Standout Scene

For Van Dyke, the main achievement of Slumdog was the way it pulled off its game-show locale. "The fact that [Resul Pookutty] had to recreate the [Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?] set and it wasn't a film studio that they were in--it was a stage--and he had to create all these elements aside from doing a normal dialogue recording, that was impressive," Van Dyke says. "He had to play the music and light cues and make sure the audience mikes were working, and to coordinate that with your assistant director to make sure the audience applause doesn't overpower the dialogue; to me, that was the more complicated part of the film."

BEST SOUND EDITING

Brian Riordan, who has edited sound on TV's The Flight of the Conchords, American Idol and the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.

His PredictionWall-E

The Winner:

The Dark Knight

"My vote was WALL-E, but Dark Knight won, and I thought it was well-deserved," Riordan says. "From the beginning, I thought it was between those two." Riordan believes it was the mature nature of The Dark Knight that gave it an edge over the cute robot flick. "I think because it had live action in it, I'm sure that helped. The animated films appeal to a little bit of a different demographic. Dark Knight had a wider demo. I think that weighted it a bit. But the movie sounded amazing, so it was great to see it win."

Standout Scene

"There were multiple scenes where the sound editorials stood out. Usually it's in all the complex scenes in the movie, but there were a lot of those," Riordan says. For him, when it came to sound editing, the prominent moment where Batman takes to two wheels was just one of the many achievements of the film. "The motorcycle scene is a great example. It's one of the many fantastic scenes of the movie," Riordan says. "To keep the energy up and to build specific sounds with everything going on in that scene was absolutely one of the better ones. That was an extremely complicated scene, to keep all that going and to have it have the same sound and energy level ... that was one of the many great scenes."

BEST MAKEUP

Barney Burman, who has worked makeup for stars in Star Trek (2009), Valkyrie and Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny.

His PredictionThe Dark Knight

The Winner:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

"I'm actually very happy to see Benjamin Button win because Greg Cannom's hands did so much of the actual work," says Burman. "It's a kind of retribution in a way. He had to put a lot of himself into it, so I think it's a very deserving accolade." But considering that Cannom also won for visual effects, where does that leave the ever-thinning line between CG and physical special effects? "You've got to wonder if voters were able to separate what was CG and what was makeup ... and does that affect their decision?" Burman says. "We just have to accept that CG is going to play a part sometimes in helping to polish off the look."

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Standout Scene

"I know [Greg Cannom's] work, and I've seen his old-age makeup in person and I've thought, that looks like an old man to me, up close and personal," Burman says. "I don't think there was any one particular thing in Benjamin Button that stood above the rest. I was very pleased to see that the old baby version of Button was a puppet. I think they pulled that off rather well. Maybe they were smart about not showing too much of it, but the glimpses that they did show were very effective." But again, as with Slumdog's achievement in sound mixing, it seems that subtlety was a key part of the win. "I think the more subtle aging [Cannom] did on Cate Blanchett was just gorgeous," Burman says. "I think the whole transition of Benjamin Button growing younger as she's aging and having the two of them go through multiple stages, that was great."

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Evan Jacobs, who has crafted FX on Silent Hill, Resident Evil: Extinction and From the Earth to the Moon.

His PredictionThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Winner:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

"Yeah, we called it," says Jacobs on his pick for visual effects. "I think for the Academy voters, it was that they liked the film. And beyond whatever the political side of the voting might be, I really think it went to the boundary-pushing movie. Benjamin Button took a pretty significant risk. It really could've failed. It could've come off looking creepy and weird, but instead it was engaging and beautifully done. All three films were great, but I really think this was the one that opened up a new avenue ... it'll be interesting to see what happens next."

Standout Scene

In a movie where special effects could have been nominated for a supporting role, the moments that blew Jacobs away were when the effects went head-to-CG-head with flesh-and-blood actors. "The stuff that stood out was in the first 54 minutes of the movie, when he's got a CG head. And for me, it's the stuff with the little girl," says Jacobs. "Here, you're seeing a completely computer-generated head and face in a scene with a live, human girl. And you buy it. It completely works. It's amazing. And there are no cinema tricks to obscure it. They just went for it. It was a very bold filmmaking choice. That's the stuff that impressed me the most."

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Although Beck was a bit disappointed in being right in saying that his preferred choice of Kung Fu Panda would be neglected in favor of WALL-E, he's nonetheless happy to see that the Oscars acknowledged a film that advanced the idea of what an animated feature could be. "WALL-E pushed the envelope," Beck says. "What's an Oscar for if not to be given to the best and brightest? And Pixar has that written them all over them, and this movie does have that feel to it. It's state-of-the-art filmmaking from the masters of storytelling at Pixar. That sounds like a piece of advertising, but it is what it is. They're the ones to beat. They raise the bar with every film."

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Standout Scene

Oddly enough, for Beck, in a movie that embraced sci-fi wholeheartedly, the elements derived from the very beginnings of film history were what resonated the most. "It was that first 20 minutes or so," Beck says, referring to the dialogue-free starting point of the film where WALL-E rolls around Earth by himself and then quietly courts his iPod-like love interest, Eve. "I think it communicates to us more deeply when we listen with our eyes. It doesn't make sense anymore to have a silent film, but here's a case where that worked É this classic, Chaplin-style filmmaking," Beck says, adding, "I think it's something that appeals to us as people and to the [Academy] voters subconsciously. I had a unique experience watching this movie because, subconsciously, I understood what WALL-E and Eve were saying, and I think that little trick impressed everyone. It impressed Academy voters. It impressed audiences. And the funny thing is, it's the first thing movies did."

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